


Tunnel Vision

by Timur



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Blaming society for your own dangerous thirst, Crack, Drawing rude anatomy, Fluff, M/M, Repeated Hand-holding, graffiti artist au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-02-01 03:36:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21359842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timur/pseuds/Timur
Summary: Chikara falls into a pothole while ogling his new neighbour. Instead of taking the hit to his pride, he decides to declare a war on potholes, wherever they may be, using unorthodox methods.
Relationships: Ennoshita Chikara/Tanaka Ryuunosuke
Comments: 16
Kudos: 91





	Tunnel Vision

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @glitch_writes for the 'blaming society' tag and the lovely people in the Ennotana server for their support.
> 
> My sincere apologies to Ennoshita Chikara.

A handsome guy had moved in to the flat next to him, the sun was shining after a harsh and snowy winter, and Ennoshita Chikara was happy. All was good and life was finally looking up. He had struck a bargain in the market, and bought a big bag of fresh fish. Now on the way home he was deftly dodging the potholes filled with water and melting ice, occasionally jumping over a minor puddle.

Suddenly he spotted a runner on the other side of the road. Shirtless. What crazy person would be running shirtless, when just one week ago it was still freezing? Not that Chikara was complaining. No, he was certainly not complaining. Those abs were mesmerising.

That buzzcut looked familiar though..

Wait, was that his neighbour?

They made eye contact.

And Chikara went..

Down.

**A month later**

It couldn't be said that Ennoshita Chikara wasn't a patient person. With five letters sent, a few calls and even showing up himself at the municipal building after the Incident, you'd think that at least someone would be able to dump a few rocks in a hole. But here he was, and the pavement and street were still filled with holes of different sizes. Some probably leading to a complete Narnia inhabited with unlucky pedestrians, cyclists and school buses. No, he wasn't angry. He wouldn't get angry over something silly like some potholes that were patiently waiting to be filled up.

No. Apparently the only thing the municipality cared about was that new graffiti artist that had shown up in town. Almost every night a new mural had appeared in a previously grey and depressing alleyway. And instead of deciding to fix his potholes, they had been busy with defacing those murals with more grey paint. Just what the town needed, grey walls and massive potholes, where hapless pedestrians could meet their untimely demise.

How nice would it be if he could reverse time. Maybe three months back. That way the potholes could have been filled, before the people in charge became obsessed with their war on graffiti. He wouldn't have fallen in that pothole and his first introduction to his neighbour wouldn't have been like _that_. Being pulled out of an icy depth filled with suddenly freed specimens of fish, was not how Chikara would have imagined that their introduction would go. He had been carefully avoiding his neighbour ever since, abs or no abs.

Maybe he should try a different angle. His previous approach to get the street fixed clearly didn't work. Could he repair all those potholes himself? Nah. Even if he would spend all his time off filling holes, there were just too many. Besides that, it just wasn't his place to fix the world, that was the job of the actual people responsible for it.

No, any practical solution to his problems would start with convincing those halfwits in charge to fix his potholes. Nothing else would suffice. But how? How could he convince these people with their severe case of tunnel vision that fixing potholes was a more important duty than defacing art? He would have to get into their heads, think like them, understand their motivation, and then finally subtly manipulate them to do their jobs.

First, what would one of these blockhead officials like? What were their desires? _Condescending smiles directed at him whenever he showed up to complain.._ _Not doing their jobs and just sipping coffee all day.. Telling him "of course, our best people are on it", knowing fully that they were not going to lift a single finger._

Clearly, these people had no higher motivations. Any attempt to steer them to a positive direction would result in failure. Maybe he should appeal to their lower instincts. What did they hate? _Doing their jobs and fixing potholes. _No, he had to think like them, be them, not see them as his mortal enemies, but merely as pawns to be moved around according to his will. _They apparently like potholes and hate fine art. _Hmm, better, but why did they hate art more than potholes? Go down to their deepest hatred, Chikara. _They hate graffiti. They hate graffiti with casual nudity the most._ Aaaaah, perfect.

Now, how could he use their irrational hatred? Just painting some graffiti somewhere wouldn't help. They would just remove it, leave the potholes unrepaired and merely get a bit more angry. Not that they didn't deserve to get angry. Chikara was itching for some petty revenge. No, he had to focus, focus on the problem at hand. He could just draw some less artistic nudity around the town? The municipality might stop to deface the art of the established graffiti artist, but instead of spending that time fixing the streets, they'd just spend time removing his own graffiti.

Maybe he could paint graffiti on the potholes? Those halfwit officials were lazy. Being lazy was their prime motivation in live. Surely it would be easier to dump a load of rocks in the pothole than paint a pothole grey? A cunning plan slowly formed in Chikara's head. He would buy a bucket of paint, and then sneak out at night, painting a whole variety of obscene parts on every pothole he could find. The municipality would be enraged about the new more lewd artist in town, and quickly fill all the holes. And things would get back to normal and he could get on with his life.

**

Chikara was fully prepared. Night had fallen and he had obtained a bucket of paint, a nice brush, a flashlight and a large sock with two carefully cut holes in it. After some digging in his wardrobe he had found an old grey nondescript looking hoodie, sweatpants, a scarf and some mittens. Nothing could stop him from finishing his quest. He slightly opened his curtains and checked that no-one was outside the apartment. No one there. He put his ear to the door of his apartment and listened for any sign of activity. Nothing could be heard. Carefully, carefully he opened his door. A sudden sound of the door hinges made his heart nearly explode, but no nosy neighbours appeared. After pausing for a while he slowly opened the door and sneaked outside.

He tip-toed his way through the corridor to the stairs. As he walked down the stairs he put as much of his weight on the handrail as possible to avoid another squeaky disaster. The back door of the building was in sight. So close. A small sigh of relief escaped his lips as he finally placed a hand on the door. Finally the scary part was over. Now he could just enter his car, put on the sock, drive to the nearest pothole and start his adventures as an incognito graffiti artist.

The moment he opened the door he stood eye to eye with his neighbour, planning to enter the building, just as Chikara was going outside. In shock, Chikara emitted a muffled scream, accompanied by the dull thud of the bucket of paint falling out of his other hand. Two wide open eyes stared down into his own.

Both of them stood, unmoving, on each side of the door post, before Chikara managed to say “Umm.. Hello.” A tiny and annoying smirk formed on the face of the guy before him. Chikara felt some irritation coming up, was he always going to bump into this guy in the worst of circumstances?

“Hello there, neighbour!” the guy said with a happy voice before finally moving his eyes from Chikara's, to the bucket of paint besides him. “Wait.. what are you planning to do with that?”.

“Outdoor redecorating?” Chikara replied.

“At night?”

Chikara slowly felt his dreams of bringing an end to the scourge of potholes drain away, leaving nothing but horrible embarrassment and a guilty face. Just like the last time he met his neighbour, on that fateful day that he was fished out of an icy pool by the very same person.

With one fell swoop, his neighbour picked up the bucket with one hand and Chikara's hand with his other hand. “Follow me,” he said, tugging Chikara along like he was some helpless child being led for walkies by a very large dog. He opened the door to the apartment next to Chikara's and gently pushed him inside and manoeuvred him onto a bench.

“Some tea or coffee?”

“Sure.. I mean, tea please,” Chikara said, still a bit shocked by this new development.

“You can call me Ryuu by the way.. I didn't catch your name the last time we met,” Ryuu said while being busy in the kitchen.

“Chikara.”

“So, what were you actually planning to do?” Ryuu asked, poking his head around the wall.

Chikara gave up. Maybe it was time to say goodbye to cunning Chikara. Time to say goodbye to 'Improve-the-world, start-with-making-sure-others-do-their-jobs Chikara'. Old Chikara was miserable and fell into pools of icy doom. Maybe now it was time for 'go-with-the-flow Chikara'. To see where this thing, finding himself in the apartment of this friendly and hot guy, could go..

“Painting.. things.. on potholes,” he answered, going with honesty for once.

“Things?”

“Dicks,” Chikara replied, feeling his chances going down with everything he said.

“Why?” Ryuu sputtered out between laughs.

“Because maybe then city hall will finally fix up the potholes, instead of painting over other graffiti,” Chikara said. He could feel his face slowly turning red. _Smooth Chikara, very smooth._

“Aah. I might be partly responsible for that, so I guess I owe you a favour,” Ryuu said, winking at Chikara.

“How so? You secretly go outside at night to dig holes in the road?”

“Nope,” Ryuu walked into another room and returned holding a spray can in his hand, “I create graffiti as a hobby.”

Chikara pointed his finger at Ryuu. “You! It is you who's making all this nice art! It's you who is guilty of turning away the attention of city hall from fixing potholes to painting walls!”

Ryuu looked a little bit shocked before saying, “Yeah? What are you going to do about it pretty boy?”

“Ehhh, I don't mind. It's just _them_ that have the wrong priorities.”

“Maybe I could help you out, after all I owe you a favour,” Ryuu said, tilting his head slightly.

“Sounds good.”

**

Another night, another attempt. Chikara double-checked if the coast was clear and sneaked out of his apartment, knocking very lightly on Ryuu's door. Last night hadn't been very productive, with a total of zero potholes defaced by paint, but at least he had had some fun beating Ryuu repeatedly on his console game after he was caught red-handed.

Ryuu opened the door and looked a bit taken aback. “What on earth is that?!” he said, mentioning the thing on Chikara's head.

“You mean my disguise?”

“Is that... a sock?”

“Well, yes, what else does it look like?”

“Ridiculous, that's what it looks like,” Ryuu replied, barely containing a laugh. “Everyone will know you're going to do crimes if you walk around like that!”

With a sigh Chikara removed his sock.

“Just put up your hoodie and with that scarf no camera is going to get a clear picture. Come on, let's make some art!”

Without incident they walked to another neighbourhood. Ryuu handed Chikara a spray can, and started painting a detailed part of human anatomy over the nearest pothole.

“You have experience drawing this kind of stuff?” Chikara asked.

“Of course, an artist like me knows all about anatomy.”

Chikara moved over to another pothole and started painting. He carefully checked from which part of the can the paint would come out (not being in the mood for another disaster), and started painting.

After a few minutes their work was done and the street was decorated with fresh graffiti coming in all shapes and sizes.

“Hah, my dicks are definitely better than yours,” Chikara exclaimed.

“Seen some references?”

“Of course, can't make art without first consulting some references, right?” Chikara said, winking at Ryuu.

“I still think mine are better, it's not the size of the artwork that matters, but the quality.”

Suddenly, Ryuu's eyes went wide and he whispered “Don't look behind you, I think that's a police car at the end of the street.”

Chikara felt a chill creeping up his spine. So this was how it ended. With Chikara in jail for the crime of vandalising roads with obscenities.

“Come on, just walk normally with me, like we are just passing through.”

He couldn't move, frozen to the spot, until Ryuu took his hand and pulled him along. Slowly he heard a car approaching behind him, but he managed to keep his step normal.

Despite their attempt to look like two innocent people taking a stroll through the neighbourhood, the police car turned on their sirens. “Run, Chika, run!” Ryuu exclaimed. They quickly dashed into a side alley and ran on until their legs gave out.

“I still hear sirens, they're close,” Chikara said, feeling more exhausted than he'd ever been in his whole adult life. He hoped that by some miracle they would escape.

“Ok, time to dump the evidence.” Ryuu opened the nearest dumpster and they threw in their spray cans. “Give me your scarf and put the hoodie down, we're going to be upstanding citizens now.” Ryuu stowed away the scarf in his bag and gave Chikara a dorky bobble hat in return, putting up some pink fluffy earmuffs himself.

“Come, let's sit on that bench over there,” Ryuu said. “Just two dudes chilling on a bench, the fluffy earmuffs work every single time.”

“I'm not so sure,” Chikara replied, “what if they question us? Why would we be chilling on a bench at night?”

“I know a good excuse, if you're looking for one?”

“What is it?”

“We could pretend to kiss.. or at least if you want to,” Ryuu said, a slight blush forming on his face.

“Hmm that is a good idea. Although maybe it would be more safe if we kissed for real?” Chikara replied, feeling a bit bold. “Only if you want though, no pressure.”

“Smart, that'll make it even less suspicious. Let's do it,” Ryuu said, staring into Chikara's eyes with an expectant expression, but making no move forward himself.

“Ok, let's kiss,” Chikara replied, feeling like he was dropped right into some dream or movie sequence, but also not moving himself.

Chikara heard a car slowly moving into the street. Time to take the plunge. Slowly he inched forward, feeling his world narrow down to just those two eyes widening slightly at his movement. His lips lightly touched Ryuu's and he felt his body and face warming up, whether it was from being close to another source of heat or just some heavy blushing, he was unsure. Ryuu moved around his arm around Chikara and moved in for the kill by pushing his tongue into Chikara's mouth. It felt so awkward, but Chikara couldn't get enough, all thoughts of police and potholes sweeped from his mind. He started thinking that maybe he could get used to this.

When finally Chikara broke off their sudden make-out session, his feet and legs felt cold to the bone. “Maybe we should stop,” Chikara said. As he saw Ryuu's face sadden, he quickly added “And continue at my apartment, where it is a little bit warmer.” Taking in Ryuu's smile, he decided that there was nothing he wanted more.

**Author's Note:**

> ...you don't want to know the alternative titles I came up with


End file.
